Daughter of Platters singer records homage to the iconic group

Franchesca Robi Gilchriese is the daughter of Paul Robi, a member of the rock and roll vocal group the Platters.

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Franchesca Robi Gilchriese has released a new album of songs by the Platters, the rock and roll vocal group her father Paul Robi sang with.

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The Platters scored a solid run of hits in the latter half of the '50s, with songs such as "Only You" and "The Great Pretender." Paul Robi, bottom right, was the father of Franchesca Robi Gilchriese, an Orange County resident who has now released an album of Platters covers.

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Paul Robi and members of a latter-day version of the Platters rehearse at his home.

Franchesca Robi Gilchriese grew up with the sound of her father singing. Paul Robi was the baritone voice in the Platters, the rock 'n' roll vocal group responsible for such hits as "Only You," "The Great Pretender" and "My Prayer."

And when Gilchriese was a kid in the '60s, her father would gather his current version of the Platters in the living room of their Baldwin Hills home to rehearse around the piano before heading out on tour again.

"That's what I remember," says Gilchriese, who lives in the Nelly Gail neighborhood of Laguna Hills. "My dad rehearsing and singing, just rehearsing in our living room all of the time. And then I went on tours with him all over the place."

Years passed and after Paul Robi died in 1989, his daughter joined his lineup of the Platters in his place, singing and managing the group for six years until she left to marry and start a family. Now, though, she's returning to her musical legacy with an album of 12 songs titled "Remembering The Platters: Songs Of My Father." On Monday, she'll perform songs from the album at a benefit in Los Angeles for the Society of Singers.

"It was something that my mother and I, we'd wanted to do for a long time, and we just didn't have the push," Gilchriese says, describing how her eventual producer, Angela White, finally convinced her to make the record. "She'd say, 'You've got to do it, Franchesca, you've got a wonderful voice.'"

And so a little over a year ago, she put the project together, recording with a full orchestra on some songs, a backing group of top session musicians on others.

"The first recording session we did was at Capitol Records, which was amazing for me to be able to do because my dad, back in the '50s when they recorded 'Only You,' they recorded that at Capitol Records too," Gilchriese says. "So it was an amazing experience. It took a lot of time and energy but we had the right people and they knew other people who wanted to be part of it."

Picking the songs to cover on the record took time, she says. "I literally listened to every song they recorded. And of course I had to have all the hits on there, but as I listened to these songs I heard more of the other ones, too."

Some didn't seem like they'd fit her female voice, but other lesser known tracks felt right to her.

"Some of my songs that ended up being my favorites weren't the ones that were hits," Gilchriese says. "'Only Because' became one of my favorite songs, it came out so beautiful. And 'Wish It Were Me.'"

Gilchriese said it wasn't until she was a teenager that she started to realize how culturally important the music of the Platters was (the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990), though she'd sensed as a younger child when she'd travel with the group on tour.

"We could go anywhere in the world where they might not even speak English but they knew the Platters' songs," she says.

Gilchriese says she had so much fun making the album that she's thinking of doing another one. As for why the Platters songs have endured so long, she says the appeal is quite simple.

"They're just beautiful melodies and harmonies," she says. "The songs are beautiful, the words are beautiful and they were sung so beautifully.

And I think that's why they've endured so many years. That's kind of why I did the album, to keep those songs alive."

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